Safety concerns could torpedo £60m Thames floating park

Walking on water: how the London River Park, planned for next summer, could look

A floating £60 million park due to open on the Thames in time for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics next summer could sink without trace amid safety fears.

The City of London Corporation was due to consider plans for the London River Park - backed by Mayor Boris Johnson - next week but the discussion has been delayed until next month after the Port of London Authority said the project could threaten the "navigational safety" of the Thames.

Organisers of a 3,000-boat jubilee river pageant in June, meanwhile, believe the park would force them to trim the number of vessels by a third.

The four-acre public park would include eight linked themed pavilions on pontoons, running along the north bank for more than half a mile from the Millennium Bridge to the Tower of London, and would include a lido and a new jetty for Thames ferry services.

Sri Ganesh Nadarajah, chairman of Venus Group, the project's foreign backers, last week hinted that planning consent must be granted this month if the park is to be ready on time. But the port authority said: "The developer's own risk assessment identifies the risk of the river park being hit by barges, an issue that remains unresolved.

"Work also remains to be done to ensure that further growth of freight and passenger traffic is not held back, and that the City's waste transfer operation... can continue efficiently."River pageant organisers' own serious objections emerged today in a letter seen by the Standard. Michael Lockett, chief executive of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation, wrote that the pontoons would affect the tide, meaning "rowed vessels would be unable to participate".The corporation's planning chairman, Martin Farr, said: "We need to be able to consider all the material facts. We look forward to receiving further information as to whether the issues identified can be resolved."A London River Park spokesman said: "We are working with the corporation and the Port of London Authority, who have asked us to carry on with our programme of testing to address the concerns they have raised. We are fully committed to delivering this remarkable vision which has the overwhelming backing of Londoners."